The category strategy
Built on your own demand, spend and performance data - not on templates. Value-chain positions, leverage and synergies stated as conclusions, with the evidence attached.
Step 1 · Category & Contract Strategy
Is your category strategy a strategy - or last cycle's scope with new dates?
The chain of activities starts here, and so does most of the leakage. A strategy that begins from the previous contract is not a strategy. It is a renewal.
The diagnosis
Most re-tendering begins by replicating the old scope. The asset has changed, the market has changed, the business plan has changed - the scope has not (..). Even new technologies may not be considered. The gap between what the asset actually does, what the scope says and what the contract prices is paid for, year after year, in double digits.
The old scope is the default because it is available, not because it is right. Time pressure, habit or complacency favour a status quo. The strategy exists to remove that default.
What you receive
A strategy your board can decide on
The contracting strategy
Contract models matched to the business plan and to what the field must deliver. The link between business objective and contract structure, written down and decision-ready. From stand alone contract to full Global Enterprise Framework Agreement (EFA).
The market reality
A current picture of the supplier landscape - beyond the incumbent vendor list - so the strategy reflects the market as it is, not as it was last cycle.
powerabode Strategy by SLA: Delivered as defined outputs, to a defined standard, by a defined date - under a service-level agreement. Never as hours.
Position in the chain
Step 1 of seven
The chain
Seven independent services, one chain of activities from strategy to close-out - and back. The strategy is where the loop begins, fed by what step 7 learned.
All seven services →Next · Step 2 - Tendering & Outsourcing
The strategy becomes a tender: scope, remuneration model, evaluation model, prequalification - award-ready.
The service →Further reading: strategic sourcing vs sourcing strategy · category management maturity · spend analysis in procurement
Start where the chain starts
A demonstration walks one of your own categories through The Workbench - and shows what a decision-ready strategy looks like against your data.
See it working - book a demonstration